“Then why did this species attack the tunnelers and eat them, for Christ’s sake?” Hunter pondered.
“Because they’ve encountered humans before,” Taylor declared. “And they like the taste.”
31.
“I don’t see how,” Drake countered. “Like I said, there’s hardly any people out here. For a couple hundred miles in each direction.”
“That’s true of the people we know of,” Taylor explained. “But this area’s full of lots of people that don’t want to be known about.”
“Illegals?” Hunter both asked and offered.
Taylor nodded. “Illegals have been crossing here for decades. Trade caravans for centuries before.”
Drake looked at Taylor in bemusement.
“I finished my master’s.” Taylor smirked. “It’s in Texas History.”
Drake smiled and Taylor continued.
“Point is, this area’s seen a steady stream of folks over the last forty, fifty years, and none of the ones that went missing would ever be reported.”
“People-eating baboons? I don’t buy it,” Jordan admitted. “Monkeys don’t even eat meat… I mean, do they?”
“Primates eat meat, including other primates,” Drake explained. “Chimps regularly hunt and kill Columbus monkeys for food. Orangutans have been observed eating squirrels and rodents.”
“Baboons?” Taylor questioned.
“Oh yeah,” Drake enthusiastically replied. “Baboons hunt and eat birds. Rodents. Small mammals. Other monkeys. I saw a troop of baboons take down this farmer’s sheep on a YouTube video once. It was freakin’ epic.”
“So, we just discovered a new species?” Nickerson asked in clarification.
“Agartha baboons,” Drake announced.
“What?” Nickerson pondered.
“Agartha baboons,” Drake repeated. “I’m naming them. They’re baboons and this is Agartha. The legendary city at the Earth’s core.”
Nickerson pantomimed looking around then exclaimed, “I don’t see a city.”
“Enough with the science and mythology lessons,” Hunter snapped before turning to Julio. “How many were there?”
Julio shook his head and partially shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t…”
“Guess,” Hunter demanded.
“Fifteen. Twenty,” Julio offered. “Maybe more.”
“We can kill that many no problem,” Nickerson promised.
“Mission’s still the same, people,” Hunter declared. “We eliminate the threat so that the tunnel can be completed.”
“It’s night now,” Pearce reminded Hunter. “Drake said those things are nocturnal. Won’t they be up top hunting or something?”
“Most likely,” Drake agreed. “But most primates follow a social structure of assigned duties. While some are out hunting—if that’s what they’re doing—then there are most likely others left behind to protect their territory, tend to the young, etc.”
“A real nuclear family,” Nickerson spat sarcastically.
“Ruck,” Hunter directed. “You ‘n’ Agüera keep watch over the entrance to the cave.”
Ruck and Agüera nodded in agreement at their assignment.
“Julio,” Hunter decreed. “You’ll stay with them here in the tunnel.”
Julio was still ecstatic about being told he was going to the United States and his nod of agreement toward Hunter showed as much.
Hunter looked to Taylor then waved his hand at the enormity of the cavern just outside the entrance he stood before. “Any ideas?” he asked.
Taylor directed his flashlight beam out of the tunnel and across the cavern toward a multitude of holes on the far side of the cave.
“Some of those are tunnels,” Taylor stated. “I say we follow the one that smells the worst.”
“Yeah, this whole cave reeks of ammonia. Like a damn zoo exhibit,” Nickerson complained.
“All the more reason to go off them smelly bastards,” Jordan declared.
32.
Taylor and the remainder of his team lowered their goggles and ventured forward into the total darkness of the cavern. The cavern floor was mostly rock worn smooth by some ancient river long dried up, and the air was weighted with humidity and the heavy ammonia-laden smell of primate urine and feces. The main cavern was 200 to 250 yards across and ended at a wall honeycombed with tunnels. The team stood looking at the wall and the tunnels that ran into it. Some of them walked a few feet from the others in study while others looked to Taylor to see what he would do.
“This one,” Taylor said walking forward toward an opening some six and a half feet tall and five feet wide.
“Why?” Hunter questioned in a heavy whisper.
“Stinks more than the others,” Taylor explained before pointing at an object laying on the floor eight feet into the tunnel. “And that.”
Hunter trained his eyes into the tunnel to see a cheap work boot with six inches of what was left of the human leg coming out of it.
“Good bet,” Hunter whispered.
“It’s gonna be tight,” Taylor informed the team. “Single file on my lead. Staggered formation and keep your spacing.”
Taylor led his team of five into the tunnel and further into the depths of the earth. The tunnel walls were smooth rock, and the path they walked upon was extremely narrow and littered with signs of activity. In addition to the human foot, the team passed droppings and pools of urine, bones stripped clean of meat, and weathered animal hides dried stiff with the passage of time. The team were silent wraiths cutting the darkness in total invisibility, following the tunnel as it led them further and further away from the main cavern and the human-carved tunnel that brought them to it.
They snaked through the underworld for 30 minutes before the passage opened into a scene torn straight from the nightmares of hell. The cavern was two football fields in size and contained a stagnant lake that covered half that. The sandless beaches were strewn with bones from a dozen different animals and from humans of every size. There were the crushed skulls of infants, collapsed ribcages of adults, and leather that was once human skin or that of animals ripped in half. The team exited the tunnel, stepped into the cavern, and stared through goggles at the signs of a massacre and feeding.
“What the hell is this place?” Nickerson whispered in fearful disbelief.
“Not ‘What the hell?’” Drake countered. “This is Hell.”
33.
“For the love of God!” Ruck barked. “Either speak English or shut up.”
Julio stepped back in fear at Ruck’s tirade.
Agüera simply laughed.
“What’s wrong?” he chided. “Are you feeling left out for not knowing Española?”
“Oh yeah,” Ruck deadpanned. “I’m sure y’all’s conversation over the past 45 minutes has been real life-changing. Y’all solve the problems of the universe, did you?
“Close.” Agüera laughed. “No. He was asking me about the United States, and I asked him about digging the tunnel. You know they did all this with picks and shovels and one jackhammer? And that the jackhammer and that generator run on propane?”
“Fascinating.” Ruck moaned. “Real sorry I missed out on discussing the intricacies of digging a narco tunnel.”
“You think you could do it?” Agüera rebutted.
“No,” Ruck answered. “Digging holes in the ground wasn’t my calling.”
“Calling?” Julio interrupted.
“Calling,” Agüera began. “It means…”
“It’s what you were born to do,” Ruck interjected. She held her rifle before her and said, “This is my calling.”